Low-profile tires have less “rubber sidewall” between the wheel and the road. That often makes the ride feel harsher, but they can feel more responsive when you steer.
Topic
low-profile tires vs ride/handling
They talk about whether low-profile tires are worth it, and how they change the ride and steering feel. They also discuss how tire sidewall thickness affects comfort and the car’s look.
Car
Subaru STI
The Subaru STI is a sporty Subaru that’s built for grip and quick driving. Here it’s mentioned because someone said the low-profile tires made it feel fun to drive.
The Ford Ranger is a pickup truck, meaning it’s built to carry cargo in the back and tow or haul when needed. The podcast mention of a “90s Ranger” likely refers to an older version of this truck and parts from that era.
Disc brakes slow the car using a spinning metal disc that gets clamped by pads. This part is about how hard it can be to fit disc brakes behind certain older wheel sizes.
The Ford Econoline is a van. The speaker brings it up to illustrate that older vans can have wheel/brake packaging issues when you try to change brake types or wheel sizes.
Bias-ply tires are an older tire construction style. They can feel smoother and more flexible than modern tires, which is why the speaker says they felt “velvet” on a long drive.
Kelsey Tire is the shop that handled the tires used on that older-vehicle setup. The speaker is using it to explain where the specific tire type came from.
“GTO” is a car badge acronym. In this segment, they’re saying it’s tied to “Gran Turismo” and “homologated,” meaning the car was approved under racing rules.
The Toyota Camry is a regular passenger car (a sedan) designed for daily driving. The podcast mention suggests they’re talking about a Camry specifically, likely in relation to a question or experience.
A T-bucket is a type of hot-rod—usually a small, lightweight, custom-built car with an old-school look. People use the name to describe the style, not one single factory model.
Car
Jag rear end
“Jag rear end” means using the back drivetrain parts from a Jaguar in a different car. Hot-rod builders do this to improve how the car drives or to get parts that fit their build goals.
Mickey Thompson makes performance tires. Here, the host is saying the car had very wide tires, which helps it grip the road and gives it a more aggressive look.
This is a specific version of the Chevrolet Camaro from around 1970—often called a “1970.5” because it was built during a mid-year update. People who collect Camaros pay attention to these because the look and trim details can be different from other nearby years.
LIVE
Emily BB30: Hello, hello, hello. Happy Friday
Rose BB30: Yeah. I, yeah, sadly I b... You know, I'm not even gonna bluff. I believe
My question from last week was what the fuck, Rose? Stop it. What the fuck are low profile t- tires good for? Ugh,
Emily BB30: I just, I can't, and I just got new tires
Rose BB30: Maybe if it was like needed a little energy, you'd stand there with like a dead blow and just keep whacking it, you know?
And, uh, then she talked about she had an STI and, um- Oh ... it had low profile tires, and she said it was really fun to drive. And then, you know, the more I thought about it, 'cause at first I was like, "I don't know if I notice that they're rough," and now that I'm noticing it, I'm like, "Oh, yeah, they are kinda rough."
Rose BB30: an informed response right there. The bigger brakes, that's, uh, critical because if you've ever had an early van, you know how fucking hard it is to fit disc brakes inside of some old 14-inch wheels that had drums inside of them. The whole shape of the wheel is completely different. Old wheels for drums are a really soft dog dish inside, and you get to a steel wheel like I had to run on the front of my Econoline off of like a '90s Ranger.
Emily BB30: greatest organ known. Oh. Whoa, crazy. Um, interesting. Yeah. Crazy interesting. Crazy interesting. Well, Chris said that hair is amazing and not low profile. And you know what, Chris? You're goddamn right
Rose BB30: When peop- when I drove Hort's Econoline from California to Massachusetts on those, uh, bias plies that were re-popped by Kelsey Tire, but they're a Firestone, people would say, "How did they drive?" And I said, "They're, they're smooth. They're like velvet. However, when you turn, you feel like you have Life Saver gummies for tires."
Also, I agree with that. I think that's true. Um, so the brakes thing and then the better handling from Jess and the better handling from Rizzo, these are all true facts. Uh, Discount Tire website said they are trendy and sporty.
Emily BB30: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then again, larger rim, larger brakes. Uh, they look cool. I think not. I'm gonna go ahead and say they don't. But anyway, uh, and that's one of the things, actually, what's really funny, is I'm pretty open. And hey, I don't wanna shit on people with low profile tires, um, even though I am about to.
Rose BB30: That's funny. A knobby tire with a big old sidewall is gonna be pretty noisy too
Rose BB30: They've ... This has been a long time coming. Emily gets her revenge. So are we gonna go to the yard and get you some 15s or some 14s from a yesteryear Honda, and then you can have a big old thick sidewall? Don't you think your car will look weird with all that sidewall?
Emily BB30: It's hard to find these. I know, yeah. 80 bucks each time, and they're expensive when I do find them. If I find a used set... I mean, I haven't looked really, but it's 80 bucks to get them mounted, so. Who knows now with the price of gas, it might be, in this economy might be more.
Rose BB30: Now, I asked a question about the GTO. What does that stand for? Now, I got a lot of answers, and I will say upfront, one educated me, because I don't recall that being in the things that I read about when I read about this topic, and this has been a while ago. I'm going off the top.
Rose BB30: P-O-N-T-I-A-C ... the correct answer to that- Uh, was really came through a lot of messages. And I'll start you off with, uh, Mopic Camry Eye, who, who does pretty frequently answer the questions. I have no idea if he listens to the show. There are so many people that I think I pretty sure are just responding to the social media videos, but not listening and
I think people maybe don't even know there's a longer form show, but hey, if they don't wanna give up their time, that's fine. We'll... No, actually, no, fuck that. Listen to the show. Listen. We work hard on this. All right. Uh, Jerry, MOPAR Camera Guy, said, "Grand touring omologato, Italian for an approved homologated grand tourer
Gran Turismo Omologata, however that last one is spelled. He just interchanged an I where there should be an O, but it's, it, you, you read it, the sound is correct phonetically.
Rose BB30: Legato. Uh, yeah, so he spelled that O-B-L-I-G-A-T-O, and he said, "Which I think in Italian roughly translates to, like, sports car with a trunk Or, like, grand tourer." Um, Jess also, uh... Jess' like answer by proxy But we'll take it. Jess said, "GTO, Gran Turismo Homologata.
Rose BB30: You're exactly right. Thank you for reminding me of the rules. Yeah.
Rose BB30: I think I just have- She's like, "Yes." I think I just wear her out being like, "Thank you," but I do mean it. I do mean it. All right, I wanna address a couple other tires. Ian Bruce, MC said, "Gas, tires, and oil from my dad."
Jesse said, "Gran Turismo, homologated." A correct spelling on several of these answers, mind you. A number of people nailed homologated. Uh, Grand Touring homologated. That's 100% correct, homologated, a word that does nothing for you in the translation. And then, um, "My sister's old boyfriend," I love this, "My sister's old boyfriend had a 66 GTO back in the '80s, so we all learned about the GTO.
Rose BB30: and oil. Is that- Y- y- yeah, that was the one that I didn't recall was the gas, tires, and oil. Like, when Drew fired that off, I was like, "Okay, that's a great guess."
Rose BB30: Does it stand for the same thing on a Ferrari? Yeah, it stands for their homologated race cars. Now, I did ask a coworker at, uh, uh, a gathering this weekend, and, uh, he gave me a better answer. Uh, we came up with, uh, Grand Theft Octogenarian. The 80-year-old who can't stop stealing from America Yeah, maybe you've heard of him. Yeah. He lives on Pennsylvania Avenue? Yeah.
You designers put it on a board. You were like, 'Yeah, this is spirited.'" Stop it
Killed it. This was, yeah, this was like if you had a grid up of all the faces, it'd be like the Brady Bunch. Like, they'd all be there waiting to answer. Even, even Johnny Olds with his unknown correct answer. They're just all in there. Thanks, everybody. Full house. Full house. Now let's see how you do next week.
Rose BB30: Is there a gray area? No, it just... I think it's a shame 'cause it held a record for a while, and then it gets beat out. You know how records are. They stand still in time, and then somebody comes and just stomps all over their nuts
Yeah, you could drive them a little bit. Like, they were big go-karts, basically. Yeah. And they, like, they could move on the track some, and I, like, wanted to drive. Cute.
What's a T-bucket?" Like, he wasn't explaining any of it to me. Yeah. I'm just like, get... I mean, this was like Jag rear end, 15-inch wide Mickey Thompson's, black. Wow. Uh, it was a sick-ass car, and I just, uh, it- when I worked for Keith Allison, his dad, Jim, had one. Uh, but
This is a '70 and a half RS Camaro. Question, where does the entire front end theme come from? And then next week I'll tell you what it shares with the GTO as well. I could tell you now, but listen, we gotta get off of here. We've got things to do. It's Friday. But where does the entire front end theme for the '70 and a half RS Camaro come from?
About this episode
Hosts weigh the ride and handling tradeoffs that come with low-profile tires and brake fitment, including how wheel size and drum-to-disc conversions can complicate things. A listener Q&A follows, where they confirm what GTO stands for and tease upcoming trivia tied to a 1970.5 RS Camaro front-end theme. The discussion blends practical fitment realities with vivid descriptions of how tire feel changes when you turn.
